I started posting on HowieinSeattle in 11/04, following progressive American politics in the spirit of Howard Dean's effort to "Take Our Country Back." I decided to follow my heart and posted on seattleforbarackobama from 2/07 to 11/08.--"Howie Martin is the Abe Linkin' of progressive Seattle."--Michael Hood.

The federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) provides a simple way of making a general estimate of the criminal justice costs of drug‐related arrests. Actually, estimating the costs of different types of arrests is a very complicated challenge because of the differences between individual offenses and, for example, the investigative and follow‐up work they require. However the use of a percentage basis method provides a general estimate of the costs associated with marijuana offenses. The method utilized by ONDCP is to (a) calculate the percentage of total arrests accounted for by drug arrests and then (b) apply that percentage to total criminal justice system costs. There were 290,650 arrests in Washington in 2006. There were 14,434 marijuana arrests that year, accounting for 4.97% of all arrests in Washington for 2006. Consequently, according to this percentage basis method of estimation, marijuana arrests cost $169.39 million in Washington for 2006.MORE...